Synchronize User defined Categories on two PCs

[hanswkraus]

Hi,
is it possible to copy only the User defined Categories from one PC to another?
Background: I use my Laptop for IMatch when not at home. At home I use my Desktop. I want to copy the categories from Desktop to Laptop to be able to set the categories for newly taken images.
Regards, Hans

[Mario]

IMatch stores categories in the database. When you copy your database to the laptop, the categories will be there.
When you're back, replace the main database with the modified database (after making a backup copy).  Copy over the new images and relocate them once so IMatch knows that the images are now on a different disk.
Easy workflow, works well.

Or do you plan to work with two separate databases?
This is not really recommended since it requires you to manually sync things like categories, metadata templates, thesaurus etc. Prone to errors and a lot of work.

When you use a separate database and you plan to add your images to your main database on return, note that just adding the images to the other database will not carry category assignments over (except for @Keywords). Since category assignments are stored in the database, not in images. You would have to export categories with assignments from the temp database and then import them into the main database. Again, extra work.

See Traveling with IMatch for more related information.

If you really, really must work with two databases, see Importing & Exporting Categories for information on how to transfer categories between databases.

[stefanjan2]

Coincidentally I logged in to ask a very similar question. Your link https://www.photools.com/help/imatch/impexp_groups.htm provides the solution.

Basically I'm travelling in Canada and all my files automatically sync via Synology Drive Client. I write labels, ratings, headlines, descriptions and occasionally keywords to the files. Up to now I haven't really used categories.

I mainly use Pack & Go one way, keeping the desktop as a master. I fear if I do two way Pack & Go, I'll lose track as to which is the latest version and get in a mess. I may be working on photos upstairs on the desktop and then perhaps in the garden on my laptop.

I now feel a need to start using categories (albums) not only for things like travel but also identifying say focus stacks, exposure bracketing, composite images using multiple images across different folders.

I plan to try using categories for the above and export / import as described in the help article.